Maintaining Power Quality
Providing you with steady, consistent power helps us save energy, which helps reduce the cost of the energy you use in your home or business.
That’s why our energy infrastructure is designed with safeguards, redundancies and automated processes in place. These measures help reduce the scale of power outages and manage energy fluctuations to keep your power quality as high as possible.
Surges and dips
You might notice some of our power quality safeguards taking effect if you ever experience your power blinking off for a few seconds, then coming back on right away, or when your lights flicker, brighten or dim for a brief moment. These split-second fluctuations are the sign of our power systems working to mitigate the effect of a power surge, dip or possibly even an outage.
If our system wasn’t designed to attempt these automatic processes to blink power on and off for a few seconds, the power outages caused by severe weather or other hazards would last longer and affect more people. We would need to shut off power to entire sections of our grid until we could investigate the cause and make any necessary repairs. Fortunately, our systems are designed to automatically perform actions like power redirects or trip closes to mitigate the effects of events or hazards that impact our power system.
What to do if your power continues to flicker on and off
If you are experiencing repeating instances of your power blinking on and off or your lights flickering, it may be a sign that there’s a problem with your electric service connection. Depending on the scale and severity of your repeating fluctuations, you may find you simply need to replace a single dying light bulb, or you may have a more serious issue.
Contact us at 888-427-5632 if you are experiencing repeating instances of flickering lights or power blinking on and off. We will come to your home or property to investigate the issue. Even if the issue isn’t occurring during the time we’re there, we can set up a recording volt meter on the equipment connecting you to power systems and monitor your power quality for a period of time, giving us data to help us identify the problem.
If there is an issue with your electric service connection, we will either perform the necessary repairs or advise you to hire a licensed electrician to conduct the needed repairs, depending on the equipment in which the issue is located.
How to protect your electronics and other equipment from power quality interruptions
Use surge protectors for your key electronics – Most modern electronics have systems in place to protect themselves from damaging power surges, but some may not, and surge protectors can help you mitigate that risk.
Follow applicable building code – Make sure your home or property adheres to the appropriate current safety codes. Those codes take electric service and power quality into account.
Always use licensed electricians – Electricity is dangerous and requires a great deal of training to work with safely. When dealing with wiring and electrical equipment, always use a licensed electrician to perform the work.